Monday, December 8, 2008

Castlewood 8 Hour Adventure Race - 2008



Ran Bonk Hard's Castlewood 8 Hour adventure race on Saturday. I had been checking the weather report throughout the week and expected the temperature to be in the high teens for the morning, but was happily surprised that it was in the 30s.

Arrived at Castlewood State Park around 5:15 AM for the pre-race meeting with about 270 other adventure racers. After the meeting a group of yellow school buses picked us up and took us to an undisclosed location for the race to begin. Once there we quickly plotted a set of UTM coordinates on our topo maps, jumped in our canoes and started paddling down the Meramec River.

Had a good time, but started suffering some crazy leg cramps around 3pm which unfortunately lasted until we finished. I'm pretty sure it was due to dehydration. It's easy to forget to drink when its cold out - although you still need to replace everything you are perspiring.

I haven't seen the race results yet. I'm a little worried about getting credit for checkpoint "F". I punched the race passport once and it didn't cut the paper very well. I hit it again, but was off a little and the hole looked a little sloppy. Hopefully it passed inspection during the tally.

UPDATE: Finished 6th out of 33 two-person male teams.


Me and Nick, team "81 Miles", during the race.
(Photo Credit: Laura E. of Bonk Hard Racing)

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